I believe that just as Nature has created men with different faces, so she has created them with different intellects and imaginations. Wherefrom it comes that each man leads himself according to his own intellect and imagination.

And since on the other hand the times are various and the situations are diverse, he who matches his way of doing to the situation in which he operates, will fulfill his projects according to his desires, and will be successful. Conversely, he who isolates himself from the current time and situation will be unsuccessful.

Hence, it can very well be that two men, albeit having acted differently, achieve the same result, for it can happen that each one of the two conforms his actions to what he encounters, and for there are as many different situations as there are provinces and states.

But as the times and situations are often changing, both on a general and a particular scale, and men change neither their desires nor their ways of doing, it so happens that one has good fortune at one time, and bad fortune at another. And truly he who should be so wise to understand the times and situations, and to adapt to them, would have good fortune at all times or would always avert bad fortune, and it would come true that the wise command to the stars and fates.

But for none of these wise men can be found—considering men are short-sighted, and cannot command to their own nature—it follows that it is erratic Fortune that commands men, and keeps them under her yoke.